Improving Employee Engagement

Posted by
Joni Rose
Mar 7, 2007

1. Provide variety

Tedious, repetitive tasks can cause burn out and boredom over time. If the job requires repetitive tasks, look for ways to introduce variety by rotating duties, areas of responsibility, delivery of service etc. For example, if some of the staff provides customer service on the phone and some in person, allow a rotation. If some staff are assigned to be responsible for a certain department, industry or product line, offer variety by rotating the assignments every 6 months to a year. You may be able to provide variety by location from transfers to a new city to changing office or desk assignments.

2. Match skills/interest to job roles

Taking a skills and interest inventory of your staff can really be an enlightening exercise. Sometimes leaders forget that staff come from different backgrounds and have a variety of educational and work histories. Create a database where you can document staff skills and interests so that when a project arises that requires a certain skill set, for example event planning, then the employees with either an interest in event planning or training related to event planning can be searched for and a list retrieved. Employees will feel valued and appreciated when they can apply past learning and become more engaged when they are doing work they are interested in.

3. Offer training to improve weak skills or encourage job advancement

Training can often improve employee engagement. If a new technology or process has been introduced recently without adequate training, staff can become disengaged and unproductive. If training can be offered that would allow staff to advance to a more senior or more responsible role, advanced level training will help engage staff that are ambitious and/or are looking for a change if they have been doing the same role for a long period of time.

If you have comments or suggestions on this blog entry, please start a discussion

If you liked this blog entry, try:

Performance Management Series

Encouraging Teamwork